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Big World

The Secret World of Arrietty (or Arrietty to all my Japanese readers) is not something I expected to see from an anime. Since Arrietty is based on the English series of children’s books The Borrowers. Although the more I think about it, Asians do seem to have a fascination with British culture. I was even more surprised, because the book had already been adapted before in the 1997 live action movie The Borrowers. Plus a few other times on TV. So I didn’t think I’d ever see another version of the story. Arrietty is actually the first Studio Ghibli movie I saw that wasn’t directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Since I had a completely different reason to watch it. This is also the film debut of Spider-Man actor Tom Holland. Even though I didn’t watch the British dub. As the title suggests, Arrietty puts more of the focus on the borrowers spunky daughter Arrietty. All she wants to do is explore, but it’s a dangerous world out there. Unlike the previous adaptation, all the action is limited to one location. But what a lush beautiful location it is. The threat is also much smaller. Making Arrietty a far more personal retelling of Mary Norton’s classic story.